As usual Laoise was there the moment my wives and I walked into the mansion. It was only minutes after sunrise and we'd just arrived back from Otherworld but somehow my seneschal was always ready for me.

And I could tell by the look on her face and the notepad in her hand she had a long list of important messages she was eager to deliver. I'd only been gone for ten days. I enjoyed an impromptu vacation with Áine, then my wives came over and the three of us celebrated the twins' birthday with the queen before they dragged me back to Earth. Now Laoise probably had a hundred things to report and a long list of people all eager for my time and attention.

Kelly and Keira were able to escape past our seneschal and hurried upstairs to our private rooms to get changed and maybe have a shower or something, while I was dragged into the office and forced to listen to the tall brunette's news.

Laoise was only five or six minutes into it when she stopped and asked, "Lady Tegan are you paying attention?"

I sighed but answered honestly, "No, not really."

I cut her off before she could launch into another lecture about unprofessional behaviour, "I'm sorry Laoise. You're doing a fantastic job and in all honesty I think you should be the ambassador rather than me. We both know I only got the job because Áine likes me and wanted an official excuse to keep dragging me into her court for 'meetings'."

Laoise gave me a sympathetic smile, "I know Tegan. But you do have the official title, and you are nobility. And despite being the most powerful mage alive, I also know you're still a child. You're only eighty years old, a fae your age wouldn't normally be on her own. Much less conducting important business and affairs of state."

I blushed but nodded "Yeah. The humans see me as early-twenties, like about twenty-one? That's still young even in human years, way too young for all this responsibility. But the ones who know about our kind, they assume I'm a century or two old. And if they know how powerful I am, they think I'm something special."

"And fae who know your true age will assume you're still in your teens, still a child. Nonetheless, you've been given a lot of responsibility Tegan. It reflects badly on you, on Clann Brádaigh, and on Otherworld when the fae ambassador to Earth is acting like a spoiled teen."

I was quiet for a few moments, then sighed again and admitted softly "Except that's exactly what I am, and we both know it. You're one of the only fae who'll actually stand up to me and force me to behave."

Laoise gave me a compassionate smile, "I think Lady Maeve would as well, if you ever tried living with her."

She added, "Meanwhile your wives are the same age as yourself, yet they both act much more responsible."

"Yeah," I grimaced. "They grew up a lot in those few years between my changeling egg hatching and when I made them fully fae. They matured, I went in the other direction."

Laoise sighed, "I think that's enough self-pity for today m'lady. I do have more to report, if you'll hear it?"

I decided to compromise, "Tell me one more piece of news, then I'm going to get myself some coffee and maybe some breakfast."

The seneschal smiled, "Five days ago a human named Elise Vale sent word, she would like to see you at your earliest convenience."

That got my attention, as I'm sure Laoise knew it would. Suddenly I didn't need coffee any more, as I asked "What did she say? Was there a message or anything?"

"No m'lady. She simply requested an audience with you."

I was already on my feet, "That's not what she would have said Laoise. She doesn't drive anymore. She was probably asking me to go visit her. I'm going to get changed and head out."

"But -" Laoise tried to stop me, she had more messages, more news, stuff that was a lot more pressing than anything from some random old human.

I shook my head as I hurried past her, "Later Laoise! This is family, it's more important."

"Very well," she sighed.

Forty-five minutes later I was climbing into the drivers seat of one of our cars, and a frustrated Laoise had been replaced by a frustrated Padraig.

"You don't want a driver?" the young captain asked again. "What about an escort? You're fae nobility and ambassador to Earth, it's not appropriate to go driving around on your own."

I shook my head, "This is private personal business. And anyways, the ambassador thing isn't public knowledge. And the damn cars all drive themselves nowadays, so no I don't need a driver. I can sit here and pretend to drive all by myself."

He sighed, "Well what am I supposed to do when you get into trouble?"

He didn't bother to say 'if', it was 'when'. Because after fifty-two years, Padraig knew me pretty well.

I flashed him a mischievous grin, "Padraig if I manage to get into any trouble on Earth that's so serious I can't get myself out of it, I think we'll all have bigger problems to worry about. Anyways, if I really need help I can call my wives. I'll be near enough for them to teleport to me, or for me to teleport home."

"Very well," he sighed as he stepped clear.

I pushed the 'on' button then recited the address. It was a retirement home in Barrie, roughly nine or ten leagues away from my estate here. In fact it wasn't far from where Elise and I once attended college together, all those years ago.

The ride was tedious as hell and honestly it did make me regret not bringing a 'driver'. Self-driving cars were the worst damn thing humans ever came up with. I almost longed for a horse compared to this nonsense. For liability reasons you had to have a licensed driver there to take over incase the software malfunctioned. And the 'driver' couldn't just nap or read or watch a video, they had to be alert and paying attention on the extremely rare chance they might actually be needed. So you had all the tediousness of driving, but none of the actual fun or control.

Thanks to traffic it took the better part of an hour to reach the small city, and another twenty minutes to arrive at the retirement home. Once the car had parked itself I got out and hurried up to the front entrance.

I paused at the door to check my appearance as it was reflected in the windows. Earth fashion hadn't changed all that much in five decades, there were some fads that came and went but jeans and t-shirts had been around for a long time and they probably had a lot more time to go before they finally fell out of style.

Still, my look was basically kind of retro. Purple hair never went mainstream, and right now most human women who looked my age wore their hair longer. I kept mine short, it was easier to look after. And I didn't bother with make-up anymore, outside of special occasions. In addition to the jeans and t-shirt I had on a light jacket, with a money card and my most-recently forged ID card in the left pocket, and my 'phone' in my right pocket.

I already regretted the jacket, it was late July and it would soon be uncomfortably warm outside. I made a mental note to switch to a small purse. I only wore the jacket because it had pockets.

After a deep breath, I finally strode into the facility. The nurse at the front desk probably would have had some questions for me, they were usually fairly strict about letting strangers wander in and bother their residents. Fortunately she was distracted by a very brief lapse of consciousness as I passed by.

I hurried up to Elise's room on the second floor, and knocked lightly at her door.

There was a delay of a minute or so before the automatic opener swung the wide wooden door open. As soon as she saw me her eyes lit up and she moved forward to pull me into a hug.

"Tegan! You got my message!"

I did my best to hide any negative emotions as I gently hugged her back and replied, "Yeah, sorry I didn't get here sooner. I was over there again, meeting with Áine."

It was hard being close to humans, and it kept getting harder. I couldn't imagine what it would be like when I was a few centuries old. Even now, it was easy to let six months or a year slip by before realizing I hadn't called or visited. And that time was almost meaningless to a fae, but to a human it felt much longer.

Time moved at a fraction of the speed for me and even at eighty I looked no older than a college junior. Fifty-four years ago Elise and I started college together, and we could have passed as sisters. Now she was in her seventies, and it was so hard for me to see this frail old lady with the wispy white hair and the thin reedy voice and remember her partying it up every weekend and living her life to the fullest.

And she really did. She spent over a decade living that kind of life. Even after college, when she landed her dream job working at a park for the Ministry of Natural Resources, she was still out partying every weekend. I couldn't even guess how many men and women passed in and out of her life as she enjoyed every moment of it.

Over the last five decades while I alternated between acting like a spoiled teen and being a legendary fae mage and noblewoman ambassador, Elise had an incredibly full and satisfying life.

At thirty-one she met the right person and settled down. She and Abigail were married the following year, and the year after that Elise gave birth to their first daughter, Rachel. Next came their son, Justin. And finally their youngest daughter, Lindsey. Now all three were grown up. Rachel even had two kids of her own.

Then two years ago Abby passed away unexpectedly and that nearly did Elise in. After all the joy and happiness she'd had in her new life, losing her wife was almost too much for her to bear. Her own health began to suffer after that, and she was soon forced to sell the house she and Abigail lived in for over three decades.

Now she was in this retirement home, and it was hard to shake the feeling that she was just waiting for the clock to run out. There was still a spark in her eyes, but it was nowhere near as bright as it was fifty years ago.

She eventually released me, and the two of us moved into her small room. It wasn't much, but she had a private washroom, a bed, an infotainment screen, and a few other amenities. There was enough space for a pair chairs against the wall next to the window, and the two of us sat there.

Once she was comfortable she said, "I've been thinking about your offer Tegan. I know it's been a while since we discussed it, but I haven't forgotten."

It felt like only a month ago to me, but I realized it was more like a year since I last spoke to her.

"Have you made a decision?" I asked. "I know there's some logistics concerns, but I still have contacts. I can get you set up with a new identity and documents."

Elise looked sad as she replied, "I spoke with Lindsey last month, I told her what you could do for me. I asked if she would help me get my affairs in order, and if she'd take me in afterwards. She's expecting her first child in a few months and I suggested I could join her and her husband, like a young cousin or distant relative. I could help her, be a babysitter when she needed it, that sort of thing? So I'd still be around, part of my kids' lives."

I got a bad feeling about that, "She didn't like the idea?"

"She didn't believe me," Elise sighed. "She thought I was going senile. She talked to the nurses here and I spent the next two weeks being poked and prodded and tested."

She added with a grimace, "And maybe I am going a bit soft. I completely forgot that Lindsey never met you. Rachel's the one you met, the one we told about my past."

"I'm sorry Elise," I shook my head. "What do you want to do?"

There was a thoughtful frown on her face as she thought it over for a few minutes. Finally she shook her head, "I realize it was a mistake to try and involve her. I was hoping maybe Lindsey would act like a surrogate parent for me, if I started again even younger this time?"

She sighed and continued, "I understand now that was wrong of me. She has her own life, her own concerns. She doesn't need her crazy old mother imposing on her. And I wouldn't ask Rachel, she already has her hands full with her two boys. And Justin never settled down, he wouldn't be a good choice."

There was a cold feeling growing in the pit of my stomach as I asked, "So what do you want to do?"

Elise didn't reply right away. She had a sad, thoughtful look on her face as she seemed to be considering her answer.

Part of me was scared she'd decided not to take the offer. Despite having had a full life, two full lives in fact, I still hated the thought of losing her. On the other hand I knew if I walked out of here alone today, I might let another six or twelve months slip past because I got busy with something else. I might not remember to visit again until after it was too late.

Like I did with Susan.

Even though we hadn't been close for a long time, we were still on speaking terms. But even so it took three months before I found out she'd passed away. Kaitlyn mentioned it when she was visiting me and the twins, she told us she'd been at the funeral and everything.

And like I'd offered Elise another do-over, Kaitlyn made the same offer to Susan. Sue declined. She decided she'd had two full lives, she'd achieved everything she wanted. She had her B&B out in Cape Breton, she remarried, and while she didn't have any more kids she and her husband had a long happy life together. And in the end, she had the chance to do it again but she turned it down. And now she was gone.

I was scared the same would happen with Elise.

PurpleCatGirl

This is the first of a series of extra chapters that follow on with a few of the people we've met in the Faet saga. This one picks up about ten days after the Epilogue left off.

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